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Sydney Vivid 2014

Jun 102014

Well another year and another spectacular Vivid festival has come and gone in Sydney. Unfortunately the nights I’d picked to go in were extremely wet, too wet for taking serious pics. Luckily on Monday 9 June, the last night, the weather cleared so a friend and I went down to Blues Point about 10:00 pm. Didn’t get many shots but have realised that with a long lens you could actually get some handy shots of the Opera House without having to brave the multitudes in and around Circular Quay…next year I’ll take the 300mm f/2.8 down to Blues Point.

Anyway, here are some of the better shots. Most were on f/2.8 at about 0.5 secs and don’t forget to also use manual focus.

Partial, partial solar eclipse

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Apr 292014

It looked promising for a great view of today’s partial solar eclipse from Sydney’s North Head but unfortunately the clouds moved in just after the moon started passing in front of the sun at 4:14 pm. I used my Nikon D800E with 70-200 mm f/2.8 with 1.7 Teleconverter and a couple of Cokin neutral density filters. This is the first time I’d tried photographing an eclipse so there was a bit of trial and error but I was reasonably happy with the shots I got in the first few minutes. Here are some of the results:

Then the clouds started moving in hiding any further views of the eclipse but giving quite a surreal feeling….just glad I got in place early enough to get shots of the first stages of the eclipse.

After it was all over there was a nice sunset over Chatswood.

…and a Manly ferry added a nice final touch.

Singapore in black and white

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Mar 242014

A recent trip to Singapore gave me the opportunity to explore some black and white shooting in the evenings with my newly repaired Leica M9 using a 50mm Summilux and 90mm Elmarit. The following shots were taken in the areas around Chinatown, Boat Quay, Little India, Arab Street and Marina Bay. All pics have been post processed using Silver Efex Pro 2.

New Year’s Eve Fireworks 31 Dec 2013

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Jan 012014

Once again Sydney didn’t let us down with another spectacular fireworks display to welcome in the New Year. I hope you enjoy…

…and all done for another year. Hello 2014

Day 5 – Mildura to Broken Hill

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Aug 282013

Day 5, 23 August 2013 and I awoke to an overcast morning in Mildura so slept in and didn’t rush out to try and get any sunrise shots. Before heading off to Wentworth and onto Broken Hill I dropped in at the main wharf on the Murray River at Mildura.

Rothbury paddle ship

Close up of Rothbury starboard paddle

Onwards to Wentworth and decided that I wanted to avoid the Silver City Highway to Broken Hill as everyone said it was a fairly boring drive and that the road through Pooncarie and Menindee and onto Broken Hill was a much more enjoyable option. This road follows the Darling River for a good part of the way and there are a number of spots where you can stop off and get some nice views of one of Australia’s great rivers. The first part of the road between Wentworth and Pooncarie is sealed but the leg from Pooncarie to Menindee is primarily gravel. I checked with the Information Centre at Wentworth and the very friendly lady assured me that it was open and should be an easy drive but she did say there were some nasty corrugations but nothing too bad.

Also, before leaving Wentworth she recommended I check out the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers and also the Perry Sandhills as both were only a couple of minutes from the centre of town. An overcast morning didn’t make for any great pictures of the junction of the rivers but the sign was worth a shot.

Murray Darling Junction

The Perry Sandhills were really impressive and I’m glad I got the recommendation to have a look at them. Once again the overcast sky didn’t make for great photos but I can’t wait to go back and spend some time there with a cloud free sky. The red of the sand against the rich blue sky would make for spectacular photographs.

Back into Wentworth before heading off to Pooncarie and I spotted an old piece of rusted farm machinery which I couldn’t go past without snapping a couple of pics. Here’s one of them:

Rusty machine taken with Fuji X100

Finally on the way to Pooncarie on sealed road but didn’t get very far before the first of several stops for pics. Travelling by yourself makes it really easy to stop as often as you like which is great but you do need to be careful as the time passes really quickly and you can easily spend a lot longer than you intend.

I’m a sucker for dead trees

Pelican on the Darling

Galahs – taken with Nikon 300mm f/2.8

Was hoping to get to Pooncarie in time for a counter lunch at the pub but was 30 minutes too late so had to settle for a pie and schooner.

On the approach to Pooncarie

Pooncarie pub

Back on the road after the break for lunch and not long before I hit the gravel and stopped to try and catch some shots of what I think was a Kite.

Kite? – taken with D800 and 300mm f/2.8 VR II

New Prado finally getting a taste for the gravel

Not much further on and I passed the “Welcome to Central Darling Shire”…that’s when you know you’re in outback NSW. A short while later and the clouds started to part just as I was passing a bend in the Darling River that was offering a great photo opportunity and another reason to stop.

Welcome to Central Darling Shire

Darling River

A bit further on and I noticed that a car ahead had stopped and the couple inside were looking at a large bird in a tree. It was a Wedge-tailed eagle so I stopped the car and grabbed the D800 with 300mm lens and started walking slowly towards it. Something startled it just as I was in the right spot and I was able to get a couple of shots as it started to fly off and then circled overhead.

Wedge-tailed Eagle

Five minutes further on and I spotted a red kangaroo on the side of the road up ahead. Before I was able to stop the car it hopped off the road but stopped after only a couple of metres, turned around and looked at me. I grabbed the 300mm again and got this shot of the “red” before it hopped off.

Red kangaroo

It was starting to get late so I needed to get moving to make it to Menindee Lakes in time for sunset. But as usual I managed to get distracted again by another Kite/Falcon and also an Emu that ran across the road in front of me.

Kite or Falcon?

Old man emu

…and with very little time to spare I arrived at Menindee just in time to grab a couple of shots across the lakes but unfortunately the clouds had moved over again and the sunset didn’t really deliver.

Menindee sunset – D700 24-70mm f/2.8

Menindee sunset – D800 300mm f/2.8

Menindee sunset – Fuji X100

I didn’t hang around at Menindee down by the lake for long before walking back to the car and heading off on the 110 Kms drive to Broken Hill in the dark. Luckily I didn’t meet any kangaroos on the way…

Arrived safely at the Silver Spade Motel about 7:45 pm and after checking in I headed down to the Demo Club for dinner…King George whiting and salad, then back to the room to load the days photos onto my PC and take a backup onto the hard drive.

Roadtrip – August 2013

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Aug 252013

After packing up the new Toyota Prado and leaving Sydney at 1:30 am on Sat 17 Aug with a stack of camera gear and only a rough idea of where I was going (apart from visiting my son, James, and his girlfriend in Torquay) I finally arrived home at 8:30 pm on Sun 25 Aug. During the 9 days I was away I drove 3,731 Kms, took more than 1,600 photos and saw parts of Australia that blew me away. I relaxed, read a book called “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall (if you’re a runner then this is a must read) and listened to a lot of music that I hadn’t heard for years or even decades, artists such as The Choirboys, Canned Heat, Chicago, Jose Feliciano, Janis Joplin, Al Stewart, Dave Brubeck, Dave’s True Story…the list goes on.
All-in-all I had a fantastic time but if I had to list any negatives there’d be two of them…first of all is that it took me this long to visit the Western parts of both Victoria and NSW (I’ve been to the US more than 40 times but had never been to Broken Hill) and secondly, the 8 hour drive from Broken Hill to Dubbo on the way home…it’s a bloody long way.

The whole trip was a visual treat with the standouts being, The Great Ocean Road, The Grampians, the road from Wentworth to Broken Hill via Pooncarie and Menindee, and Broken Hill and surrounds such as Silverton.

Over the next week I’ll write blog for each day and sort through the 1,600 plus pics and post my favourites.

Oh, and one other thing. Here’s a list of the camera gear I took along for the trip:

Nikon D800
Nikon D700
Nikon lenses:
- 14-24mm f/2.8
- 24-70mm f/2.8
- 70-200mm f/2.8
- 300mm f/2.8 VRII (this is an outstanding lens and I’ll be sure to highlight the pics taken with it)
- 60mm f/2.8 AF-S Micro
Fuji x100 (used more than any other camera for the 9 days)
Leica M9 and several lenses
- I’d originally arranged to have the sensor cleaned at “The Camera Clinic” in Collingwood, Melbourne on Mon 19 Aug before I started the major part of the road trip. However, when they inspected it they said there was actually a fault with the sensor and Leica agreed to fix it for free (parts and labour)…the bad news was that it was going to take 4-6 weeks so it wouldn’t be coming for the rest of the road trip.
- It’s amazing that Leica have authorised this repair to be at no cost to me when you consider that I purchased the M9 back in Sept 2009 so it is well out of warranty. Now that’s what I call customer service and “The Camera Clinic” in Melbourne are a fully authorised Leica repair centre and have been fantastic.

Vivid Sydney Highlights 2013

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Jun 022013

Vivid Sydney has once again delivered a visual feast in 2013. The Opera House is absolutely spectacular this year and for everyone who didn’t get a chance to see it in person I’ve shared the highlights in this post. Taken with a Nikon D800E and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens set to manual focus on a tripod with 0.5 Sec shutter, f/2.8 aperture and ISO 400.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

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Jun 012013

How fortunate I am to live in Sydney. Apart from the rest of this great city the Sydney Harbour Bridge by itself provides countless photographic opportunities. There are so many perspectives and I will keep adding them to this post so I can share them with you.
I find it ideal for black and white and my favourite software for converting colour, Silver Efex Pro 2, comes to the fore once again.

North Sydney fog

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May 282013

Sydney awoke on Tuesday 28 May 2013 to a heavy fog shrouding most of the city with ferry and air traffic severely impacted, that of course meant the roads were more busy than usual. Luckily I live close to work at North Sydney was able to use back streets and get to the office a little earlier. I took the opportunity to grab my Fuji X100 and walk around North Sydney oval to capture some of the surreal feeling that comes with a heavy layer of fog. Everything is so still and it just screams for a lashings of black and white treatment. It’d be so good to have a Leica M Monochrom to really take full advantage of mornings like this…oh well, one of these days. In the meantime I can hardly complain because the Fuji X100 can go with me anywhere and takes absolutely awesome pictures…and with a bit of Silver Efex Pro 2 action you can get some fantastic results. Here are some I hope you enjoy:

New Year’s Eve Fireworks

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Jan 012013

I’ve never had much success photographing fireworks but then again I’d never really paid much attention to doing it properly and just used the automatic camera functions in the past. All I ever managed to end up with was a lot of useless pictures that I ended up deleting. Now, when you live in a city like Sydney which has one of the best New Year’s Eve fireworks displays it’s criminal for a photographer to not take it seriously so I made a pact for Dec 31, 2012 to make a real effort to do it properly. I always wondered why some fireworks shots look absolutely spectacular so after a lot of research on the Web there were a couple of fairly obvious tips and techniques that I decided to try:

you must use a sturdy tripod
set your focus to manual and pre-focus on where the fireworks will be exploding. It should be close to infinity and with the recommended aperture that’s close enough
set aperture to at least f/14. This is critical to ensure you get the right exposure with the shutter open long enough to capture the full starburst but not get too much light so as to over expose the image
set ISO 200, or ISO 100 if you’re camera supports it
set camera to bulb (so you can control how long the shutter will stay open)
use a remote cable release to open the shutter and keep it open for the desired period

All the research said the hardest bit was deciding when to open the shutter and when to close it again, but in the end I didn’t find this to be that hard. If you watch carefully you can see the shell containing the fireworks as it’s propelled skywards. It’s then a matter of estimating just when it’s going to explode, opening the shutter and holding it open until that particular explosion has reached its extremities so you get the tracer lines captured for the full star burst. I found that this was generally somewhere in the range of 4.5 – 5.5 secs. I think for my next opportunity at photographing fireworks I’ll set the aperture to f/16 and keep the shutter open slightly longer.

There’s a lot of trial and error but the results I got this past New Year’s Eve were by far and away the best ever. Still a lot of improvement to do but I’m now on the path to much better fireworks photographs. Just remember that the most critical variable is manually opening the shutter for the required period and then adjusting aperture and film speed to adjust exposure.

I hope you enjoy the following shots taken from a friend’s balcony in Pyrmont, Sydney. Camera is a Nikon D800E with Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens.